When The Sun Is Setting

Beautiful, is it not? Setting sun brings so many happy memories to our mind. We think of bright hues of the sky, the pleasant breeze, and the company of friends or of somebody very special and close to heart. We see the red cherry changing colors of waves or peaks of distant mountains. We thank God for all creation, this land, this light, this water, this sand. We thank God for all those beautiful things He has bestowed on us. We thank him for life. We thank him for our past, present and future. We also thank him for the dark night that is on close heels of the setting sun. We thank him even for the darkness of the night because we know for sure that there is going to be a bright sunny morning to follow. But everybody is not that lucky. There are some advanced age seniors who think that this might be their last sunset. Worse still, is the fact that there are some seniors who want this to be their last sunset. We all are going to witness such sunset sooner or later in our lives. We all are going to experience a hopeless sunset with no future. Our bodies will be old and our joints will be painful. Our minds will be blank and our eyes will have no sparkle. Is it scary? I think not. Why should it be scary if all of us have to go through that? We have to accept it and help those who are old and tired. No, no, please do not think that I am talking about doing something noble or charitable.  There is a simple rule that when we supposedly help others we are actually paving our way for accepting help with dignity and with a guilt free mind when we need help, assistance or support.

One section of my mind is always occupied by thoughts about Cancer Prevention, Symptoms and causes and by cancer patient care. Palliative care of cancer patient is a very specialized topic. I have my own opinions based on experience, about the same. I shall be blogging about these as well but this post is about our responsibilities towards our very old seniors.

There are many things we can do for our aged seniors. We can spend few minutes daily with them chatting about their good memories, about sports and films or even juicy gossips as if they are of our generation. Reading a book or watching a film together on your computer will make them very happy.  Remembering them on their birthdays, anniversaries and festivals make them wholeheartedly enjoy special days. Gifts are always special, but at their age, electronic gadgets, collectibles, and clothes are not much important to them. Tasty food from the joints they like or sugar free cakes and sweets if they are diabetic will be highly appreciated by them.  The list can be big and everyone can think of numerous ways to make their lives more pleasant.

It is important that we must not harm our seniors' self respect and dignity. We must bear in mind that nobody is pleased to be in a position of needing help. I remember an incident in a Mumbai local train compartment to which I was witness. It was a practically empty compartment on a Sunday morning. An old man was slowly moving between the aisles leaning heavily on his walking stick. Suddenly the train jerked rather violently, probably it was changing tracks. The jerk made the old man lose his grip on the walking stick and he fell down on the floor with his walking stick tossed away to some distance. Many of us rushed to help him but he sternly said, “Please don’t, I can manage”.  With some effort, he got up, picked up his walking stick and sat on an empty seat. One could clearly see that he was not sorry for falling but he was proud of being able to manage his own affairs. He was telling all of us “I CAN”.